Xmas Time

 So thats it im off to struggle thrugh Xmas in my terrible introverted awkward fashion . May you all have the Xmas You Love and may Cherie find just the right jumper , See you soon enjoy yourself in whatever way you choose 

Xmas Rant 2

 Well its the season of endless xmas adverts , the perfume ones are getting my goat, how many gallons of this ghastly slop do they actually sell?  there seems to be endless different ones this year , i did recognise a Hemsworth trying to look hard on one but thats about it , just endless weird looking folk we are supposed to aspire to be ?  maybe its just for the younger generation ? As someone whos guaranteed to get an instant headache standing next to people dribbled in the stuff maybe its a good job i dont venture out this time of the year...lol

The moment of glory is the M&S advert who the hell are these aspirational idiots prancing round a party?  i hated this one so much i looked it up , Tan France is his name and i would have drowned him in  if hed thrown the bored game i was forced to play because it was xmas , into a fishtank , not a clue who he is but hes my hate figure at the moment 

Today we had a local councillor election , i was the only one interested and it was an excuse to toddle down to the village hall on my own two feet , himself would have insisted on going in the car , we have had tons of leaflets from the Lib Dem candidate , but what gets me is why are they always boring blokes of a certain age want to be councillors ? wheres the younger generation or even an ethnic candidate? outside the polling station we had a bloke begging for votes for one of the candidates . You guessed it white middle class man of a certain age . But then it got very surreal , i thought i was hallucinating there appeared from the lane beside the polling station a hoard of Santa hat wearing , north face owners , all with their hiking sticks and they proceeded to surround the vote beggar and hound him about the anerobic digester they are building up the road ...ho hum i must say we and the other poor locals are the only people supporting this on the grounds that it may bring jobs for folks who dont have a degree to the area . 

Come on do tell whats getting your goat for xmas ? 

Progress with Mumsie

 So heres a moan about mumsies carry on ,  well the boiler is knackered and they want 3k to replace it , somehow this is odd that 10 days after the warranty would have run out it is dead , now i know mummy dearest had problems since the day it was fitted , good old Worcester Bosch were out two or three times every winter and she has paid out hundreds of pounds for parts because whatever was wrong with it was never covered by the warranty , daughter gave them a bollocking and let them know shes part of the legal profession and that the fault is caused by a part that they knew was faulty and have  supposed to have retrofitted 3 years agom they charged for it and we have all the receipts !!!! Not much help though when we need it running to stop the mould and damp !!! the complaint has however been passed up the food chain and we will see. 

Anyway daughter decided once again to chase up the Court of Protection having got an actual  phone number for this secretive branch . They were sort of helpful , if somewhat surprised that their phone actually rang . It was seem that the order was granted back on November 7th !! BUT they have a 3 month backlog on letting people know ...you cant make this up!!...so long as we can provide the relevant paperwork we finally may have got somewhere . Our next daft question is what is the required paperwork ?  we got a list , most of which we have but we dont have her Deprivation of Liberty document which the council had . They have lost it!!!  The home do have a copy but its whether the Court will accept it or if we have to go through paying yet another Consultant to obtain another ...AAARRRGGGHHHH 

Tad Chilly

 Well this is lovely the freezing fog started yesterday with just a smattering of snow we had no plans except looking out the window at it . Then we get a phone call ..lol   They were finally coming to tow away the car dumped here on the first day of the Covid Lockdown by useful son , so they had to drag a battery out and much to my amazement and the bloke from the transport company it started first time and crawled its way out of the bushes under its own steam and up on to the loader . I did think my threat to grow tomatoes in it might work eventually . We then had to trek out in the wonderful weather to go and pick up the keys for the garage hed found for it . 

I did manage to con my way into a trip to the community larder but it was bleedin freezing pottering round Sleaford , i got a round of applause they had been waiting for the first person to take one of their amazing display of huge cabbages , ive got cabbages in the garden but this monster couldnt be left behind it will keep me going till xmas. I also got a big bag of tiny pears , They get a lot of surplus from the fruit and veg packhouses , the cabbages would have been too large for the supermarkets the pears would be too small who cares its cheap food. and the dehydrator will be churning out more pear chips . I pop in when i get a chance and always make a donation , its not like a foodbank it helps reduce commercial waste you pay  membership annually then £6 a visit you can find the strangest things and the money paid in supports the foodbank , they had bags of cleaning wipes that were misprinted free yesterday . Last time it was to small bunches of celery by the bag load and fast food prepared bags of ready chopped lettuce and tomato it all dehydrates so i go when i can , himself and his fuel rationing doesnt allow trips out for no reason unless its for him ...lol 

Xmas Rant 1

 Im starting early this year ..lol  Im being plagued morning noon and night by phone calls from loan companies, now i rarely give out my number and the only people i can think of is i gave the number to is the Local Council a couple of weeks ago , so i imagine they have sold it on hence the rash of calls one even said to me that i was ruining xmas for my family by being broke !!! before i got a chance to hang up . As council tenants they assume youre broke so buying the phone numbers must make them tons . Its all over the TV as well hundreds of companies with stunning APRs just lending you a few quid for xmas , just fine till youre late getting paid and end up with default payments .AAARRGGHHHHH all these ads should be banned till post xmas .

My other pet peeve is the Studley old bloke flogging over 50s plans to eyelash batting widows , he lurks in garden centers and pops round to prune their bushes , you just know its not just a bit of commission hes after. 

Now is the season to consider making a food bank donation , please think canny on this one , they see enough selection boxes , chocolate oranges and mince pies . being needy isnt just for xmas day ! UHT milk is the one our foodbank is always screaming for ,  coffee, tea , pot noodles, cup a soup ,anything you just need a kettle for.  Pull top tinned fruit etc for when the leccy has run out is always needed . Dont forget CASH dont judge people it mostly goes to topping up electric and gas cards most foodbanks have an account to do this online . I went into our community food initiative the other day and someone had donated loads of bags of logs and sticks, there was lady stood guarding them and asking folks if they needed them she would deliver them on her way home .  So its not always the obvious stuff and you cant heat your home with a chocolate orange !!   

Bang Your Head

Its that time of the year again , ive lost the will to breathe , every year im the same it gets to the dark months and the will to live disappears no amount of vitamins , weird herbal remedy's or SAD lighting does a lot of good im just  a morbid minny once it gets dark. I feel the temperature changes in every bone and tendon this year its allover the place weather wise which isnt helping . For the first time in a decade we have tons of food and tons of heating oil , himselfs pretty stable health wise , he hasnt been in an ambulance for months so why do i get like this , i think this year its particularly bad due to all the hassle over Mummy Dearest . Just last week i had a phone call from a social worker asking if we were satisfied with her care and did we have any complaints ? all a bit strange . I did say why dont you go visit her and see , but apparently they arent allowed unless theres a complaint logged ???  We are just glad when shes not attacked anyone or done herself an injury.  We then get a call from a neighbour to say the boiler has packed up ...AARRGGHHHH  so my daughter had to do the trip out there , she only got the boiler a few years ago and it had an extended warranty . So the company came out  only to tell us that the warranty is void because the property is empty and it hasnt been serviced this year AAARRGGGHHHH , they charged us £400 for the callout and to order the part we await with interest the final bill , we still cant get any money from Grannys estate , so daughter has an interest free credit card  its all we could think off . It will get sorted eventually but how long is a bit of string? 

Be Prepared

 

So in the world of the fens im still dehydrating merrily , today its grated broccoli stems half a dried up onion from the fridge and the outer sticks of a bunch of celery , its great added to soups and stews i just mix them in a huge storage jar , im using one and filling another , i may even make a couple as xmas presents , that should baffle the recipient ..lol 

Ive just ordered a load of my usual sewing machine thread and i spotted £1 a reel varied colours of the same make in Grafters of Coningsby , weird shop , sells food, cleaning supplies shoes craft supplies in fact its a weird mix but very reasonable prices , hidden on a small industrial estate.

Himself is busy ordering end of season fishing stuff , at least its cheaper than his rusty crap but ive a good tale to tell about him...Yesterday he got a call from the DWP  , so he had to take the call which set him muttering he hates them with a vengeance, they refused to speak to me, he usually passes it across because i know he will start shouting and swearing hes so paranoid about them . Inevitably he throws a fit a couple of minutes in and slams the phone down . Hes then off on one about scammers asking for bank details , he promptly has an angina attack and i was wondering whether to ring the ambulance but he did eventually calm down . Now i had been expecting a call, the DWP lost at the Court of Appeal the other day , i watch all their court cases with interest and they were trying to get out of paying their arrears backlog on the grounds of Covid , they lost and it stated they would phone those affected and inform them of their payment details , for some people its a very large sum of money that the DWP has spent millions on trying to avoid paying , its ruined many disabled peoples lives and a lot of people have died waiting for this to be resolved. It has stopped people accessing other help that was available to them and have you seen this mentioned in the headlines anywhere ? Once again the disabled arent news worthy or does the DWP just silence all criticism ?

Shopping

 In the real world i popped into town yesterday with himself of course , so it was a pain , he wanted a meat pizza from Morrisons but they no longer do made pizzas and Morrisons was it usual nightmare, they have shrunk the actual food portions of the shop yet again and everything he insisted he wanted from their they didnt have , which of course was my fault , did get a cheap chicken on yellow sticker . Then the discount crisp lady , where he proceeded to park in the deepest part of the flooded carpark , they had little actual food just endless booze not even much of a crisp selection for him oh and by then im wet to the knees . Lidl was as usual a little hit and miss but they have got actual shin beef at the moment its not cheap but what is . i got 2 packs and despite the moaning i will split them down to get 3 vats of stew . jusy got half a small trolley full ,a case of milk  and his diet peach tea . Then Asda for the stuff Lidl didnt have it had been ransacked there was little on the shelves but its month end and then i remembered the government have given a grant so their were lots of folks laden up . I did manage to get some expensive pre mixed screen wash , in case you havent noticed its pretty much all been watered down to the point of uselessness its all good to only -2 so you might as well use water , so do check before you buy it . Im struggling with self service tills as my hands are playing me up , so i joined the endless queue at the normal tills there was only a couple and i got the choice wrong, in front of me were a couple of a certain age with 2 heaving trolleys the man was checking it all off with a calculator and kept telling the cashier that the prices were wrong and gripping and moaning  eventually it gets to the paying bit and he wants to pay with his phone £250 quids worth .....well the phone said no , so his wife says wheres your card and he looks at her and says guess , so she scuttles off to get it . Now you would think that meant in the car so we all watched her galloping across the car park , leap in the car and drive off!!!  By then the queue is down the store as we all stand looking at each other in amazement , then the manager turns up the cashier explains and he says can you all reload your trolleys and use the self service . Things got a little interesting as he was told to GTF by one bloke and nobody moved , so hes on his radio summoning back up and more senior management turn up with security telling us all to go to self service as he was closing the till , nobody moved ...then the very pink faced lady reappeared with a sheaf of plastic and paid .  I was ages so i got a right rollicking when i got back to the car , but what got me was the bloke just stood their leaning on his trolleys smirking . 

its Raining Again

 Well it would seem being 12 ft above sea level is very fortuitous on the edge of the fen , the hard bit is getting from A to B . We have umpteen million pound new flood defenses that didnt work on the day , horncastle Tesco is under water , a boat got stuck in a sluice gate while it was open on the estuary so the tide just ripped in , theres houses schools and roads flooded for miles its a wee bit of a mess in fact we are just waiting for more breaches . but im fine here and its still raining , i have a load of towels out on the rinse cycle and they will be lovely and soft in the distant future when they dry . 

It promises icy weather after the floods so that should be when the mould team come to strip everything out we will doubtless freeze to death , You see we had a surveyor for the council turn up last week to inspect the mould , it seems they are now going to do something about it,  he was horrified and he said they would be there next day , i explained i have to use two bottles of mould spray a week just to try and keep on top of it , the usual nonsense about not opening the windows enough and drying washing on the radiators which i never do , I pointed out that they had had independent surveyors do a full inspection and they said pulling the place down was the only solution , its in the plaster the insulation the water system . So weve waited a week and someone further up the food chain is coming tomorrow . I really will struggle to be polite if they start the same old shit about it being our fault 

Phone

 So heres a wee rant....bleedin phones have they become the biggest cause of mental health problems in the world?  Teenagers with hate at the end of their arms ?  Its become to easy to drop down the rabbit hole , teenagers who never sleep because theres always some other muppet sharing dumb ass tic toc at 3am . What has occasioned this rant im watching peoples  life being destroyed by the mobile phone , all the endless shots of where youve been,  what a good time they are all having , the perfect lives of people who are so far from perfect in the real world . Do they have a partner who expects an answer every 20 seconds to his puerile where are you? what you doing? its like collective brainwashing . I had a whole conversation with grandson on how his lovelife isnt going well , because the girl hes besotted with runs every sentence past her friends ..WTF  so i made a really wild suggestion ..why dont you both turn off your phones when your together ? The look of horror said it all , i pointed out they could actually talk to each other and get to know each other . Then i heard him chatting to his mate about using their mobiles in class!!  the technology to block phone signals is inexpensive why arent schools using it ? give the teachers a walkie talkie each to call for back up if they need it ..thats another problem solved . 

My daughters struggling due to the pressure of being perfect , shes always been a high achiever and expects far to much of herself , she has a high responsibility job , she thinks she must have the perfect home the perfect life . Turn the damned phone off when youre finished for the day , live with your washing yurt , the cat prints on the floor the fact you go to bed to sleep because youre both to knackered to put on a huge sexual performance that your phone tells you every body else is doing . 

Step away from the phone it is ruining your lives !!! 

Winter is Coming

 Well the geese are better than any weather forecast for the last couple of nights theyve been coming over in the early hours , old cat has come in for the season she decided she was joining me in bed last night and wanted to fight me for possession of the hot water bottle , little cat was not best pleased so they were having a scrap on the landing at 4am , this morning old cat has been out to do her business and has discovered that the dehydrator is a source of warmth so shes cuddling it . ho hum .. got to remember to fetch in the last of the houseplants before dusk , ive ordered a cheap burn your house down growlight from China for my ginger plants popped into the fake fireplace there may be room for a few salad plants we shall see.

We are still having fun with our GPs  , other half is supposed to have his transfusions or infusions every 6 months , he has six monthly blood tests to schedule his hospital visit , he had the blood test and they insist his results are perfectly normal so he doesnt need a transfusion the problem is this cant be true he has no ability to absorb iron from diet ,so his problems are getting worse hes itching all the time his tinnitus is ridiculous hes shouting all the time and hes just exhausted .  We have a telephone consult with a new haematologist in a couple of weeks maybe they can kick our GP up the arse and teach them how to read test results , i know what he has is rare but delegating reading his results to some office minion isnt on . Meanwhile im sick of being told that i can expect these things at my age and not seeing anyone . 2 years since i last saw any doctor at our surgery !!!  there is never anyone there other than support staff , woe betide you have a medical problem thats not super normal or available on google .AAARRRGGGGHHHH

Catch Up

Ive finally caught up on life, ive been out doing a bit of fruit tree pruning this afternoon in his absence, i havent the time or patience to tackle big jobs when hes home . He will insist i have to get out the proper ladders the correct safety gear etc etc and dont forget the training session on the job ive done a thousand times before from a bloke whos never had any interest in gardening ...lol  So ive been standing on the wheelie bin with my chainsaw and my second best glasses on and thats job done . 

In the real world we still await any news from the Court of Protection regarding mothers care home fees , at £1500 a week they are mounting up rapidly and they never stop hounding us. We can do nothing only wait . My daughter says shes owed over £1000 just for the gardener, plus despite the bungalow being empty the council wont accept that it is , so full council tax is due until we get the legal guardianship passed . Mother meanwhile is still psychotic , knows no one and terrorises the staff and other patients. I wonder if everybody else is rich they deal with ? I will just continue crocheting endless tedious xmas decorations , subtle hint daughter turned up with a load more wool and to collect batch one. gives me something to do of an evening while we all watch the world implode and burn , none of them are right its just endless poor people being used in the power games of the rich .      

Doom

Sorry im neglecting you all at the moment , ive been a tad under the weather and im getting there slowly . pottered down the garden yesterday for the first time in nearly two weeks only to find my 20 year old wellies have developed a hole and the veg has snuck up on me . ive squash hiding everywhere , the green beans are monumental and something has eaten off my spring cabbages despite them being in a cage ?? At least we had a windy day yesterday and ive caught up on the washing . The usual high level of help from the other members of the household  means ive a lot of catching up to do . Though himself has enjoyed eating loads of tinned crap nuked in the microwave by son . Getting the mould and stench out of the fridge is a challenge as they just left everything fresh to go rotten ..ho hum . Himself pointed out that i need to stock up on tins , he has no idea that i have many more hiding places than just the tin cupboard , being a sly prepper is a way of life ...lol 

Season of Mists

 So its the season of mists and total apathy ,  my daughter has charged me with crocheting dozens of xmas somethings for a craft fair because shes not well and promised them to someone , can you imagine anything more depressing for someone who loathes xmas?  im bad enough this time of year without dozens of little xmas trees haunting my life ...lol  Anyway im removed from the tyranny of the garden by the weather but still it haunts me , im constantly tending the dehydrator , himself having discovered Pear Chips his new favourite food , i have yet to figure out the exploding raspberries problem but ive tons coming ready so they may end up in the freezer instead of the dehydrator , despite being on 24 hrs a day the dehydrator uses little electricity , next project will be lemon cucumber chips we have a glut of those coming the next week . Then theres the weird way we have a huge crop of Pink Fir Apple potatoes  they were a couple of strays that were hiding under the pumpkin leaves and have produced the best crop ive ever had , Nature is a funny old thing . Strange request time , does anyone have a couple of fresh walnuts for me to plant , i can pay postage if you have Paypal . 

I seem to be reaching saturation on the winter groceries front , im more well stocked than ever this year and im running out of places to hide stuff from him...lol . The freezer looks healthy and i will collar a turkey something as soon as they are released into the wild its just an extra few big things like more pet food , Maggi catering mash and dried milk , there will be more fresh stuff this year , sprouting seeds is proving popular and i will have a multitude of different squash and cabbages along with leeks . i wish sweet potatoes grew better here but your reliant on the weather for them , but they keep well so im picking small ones up cheaply at the moment .

So thats my exciting life at the moment ...what are you all up to?

Prep ??

So im doing my usual prep for winter routine , stock up on a few things, look round at water butts in the sales, inspect the sheds for repairs and buy weird shit from the auctions..lol                                                    On the weird stuff from the auctions , once again crappy photos and my view of sizes went a little awry , i have looked for a fish kettle all summer to plant winter salad into , i figured it would slot up the side of his scooter in the porch . I have had numerous plastic windowsill boxes they all go brittle by spring and snap and fall apart  so it seemed quite logical to me and i payed next to nothing for the auction lot . Its huge , its french, its aluminium it weighs  nothing , it still has the vintage stickers on it and i think you could cook a small whale in it , weirdly it came with a brand new pickaxe , which my agrophobic son claimed and dragged off to his lair, should i be worried ? it also had two big caravan water containers which have been sterilized and dried in the sun , prepper mind says they may come in useful  in the event and they can reside in a shed wrapped in plastic , nothing does my head in more than the filth that comes from nowhere in a shed when you want to use something .                                                                                  Then i went to the carboot sale and something winked at me , i wandered all round the place but when i went to the car it was still winking to me , asked the old bloke selling it and he said hed ruined the top trying to clean it , so im now the proud owner of a long arts and craft stool its big and chunky and i havent decided whether to recover it or live with it in ruin we shall see, i seem to have amassed loads of projects for the winter plus my daughter has roped me into crochet a load of xmas stuff for a craft fair , its all go. which with my nine millionth batch of shingles is just great , just got to pop out and struggle to plant out 20 spring cabbages and Japanese onions...aaarrrrgggghhhhh 

Refugees

 So as a woman of the working class and of a certain age , you may be expecting a whole rant about immigration . Guess what it isnt, its about the chucking up of houses on every spare inch of the village one of the ancient touch your forelock farmers having turned over the business to his offspring . They are selling off every inch they possibly can to be used for building overpriced houses , last year we had them building a huge eco house mansion about 200 yards away , it took forever because she changed her mind every 4 minutes about everything , best laugh she planted a huge line of £100 trees all across the front  probably to block out the view of us poor folk and every one is now a large dead twig due to planting them at the wrong time of year , then there was the row with the cable layers when they started digging her block paving up at the end of her drive , pure street theatre provided me with entertainment for days , council officials, management from the cable companies blokes with tape measures you name it they were there only for her to be told you cant annex a strip of verge because it made your drive entrance look untidy . The sense of entitlement is epic . but now we are getting 4 more of these eco monstrosities directly in the field over the road and i have had to rehome the refugees at hedgehog feeding time i have between 6 and 18 of the hungry nosed buggers . A tawny owl, a grunty squirrel and snakes . You see they have ripped all the trees and ancient hedgerows out , the wildlife is all homeless and hiding here . Guess thats how you designate an eco home ? 

While cutting the front hedge the other day i was accosted by a rather posh lady driving a Tesla Betamax, she wanted to know what the village was like , she really did pick the wrong day , so i told her ... just behind the pretty trees there is a huge chicken farm that stinks , theres a pig farm just over the fields and the worst smell is its shit spreading season , just to cheer me up the RAF obliged with a full on performance of we are late for our lunch with a couple of  jets screaming overhead because they are on day and night war games at the moment . Oh and theyre building the largest anerobic digester in Europe up the road , she cant say she wasnt warned...lol

Pain

 In the arse that is , my dearly beloved grandson who was going  home last night decided as one final treat that he wanted to go to Stickney car boot sale yesterday . I was rolling on the floor pleading nooooooo , so of course himself took no notice and said oh yes what a great idea . So off we went  . The overnight rain had kept the dust down if nothing else , there was still 15 rows of stuff to wander through , i think in my case it should say trudge through, they wanted to inspect every crusty tool and vehicle part so i lost them and looked at the odd bits i found interesting , i managed to buy a large kilner type clip jar for storage and a bunch of Sindy knitting patterns , I did ask the price of a lot of stuff but it was all out of my price range , A Simplicity Bias machine new in the box £50 it was a very fair price because they are £120 new in the shop but i dont have £50 for a need or a want...lol . There was also a house clearance bloke with 2 boxes of Sindy furniture and stables etc . i was after the clothes i can spot them at a thousand paces , but once again he wanted £50 ,  i dont think he realised the clothes alone were worth far more than £50, the world of Sindy became quite ridiculous during Covid and it shows no sign of calming down . Barbie who you couldnt give away is now doing the same.

The veg man however was his usual joy , huge tubs of grapes £1  ive had to pop loads in the freezer this morning but once again ideal for the winter , pineapples 3 for £1.50 guess im going to be practising my canning again , we got 3 melons so that grandson could take one home , his mother doesnt do fruit much . managed to stop himself buying tons of beetroot huge bunches for £1 but the prices of good keeping potatoes has soared theyve gone from 8 to £15 for a sack of Marfonas locally grown ,scary when winter is coming and theyre usually cheap now . I keep getting the £1 bags of scrubbed jacket potatoes they have 10 or 12 in them , i part cook them in the microwave then finish them when i have oven space, then into the freezer they go . 

So im off to hobble down the garden to pick beans , zonked off my head on painkillers after being up with cramp absolutely everywhere all night , guess you can can veg stoned , functioning zombie today sums it up , i will go chat to my pumpkins and squash the neighbours know im batty so they wont notice ...lol 

Chores

 So its food preservation time , its all very experimental at the moment , I know i dont need tons of anything so im doing 4 jars of each garden fruit and veg as it comes ready , its just so easy , though himself is eyeing up yesterdays canned plums already , hes not getting his hands on them till after xmas in the dark times when we can get bugger all fresh fruit and veg here . All im using is endless jars that once held Lidl gerkins that himself is addicted to ,  the plums are huge this year and the stones just fall out when you split them , it really isnt hard work , just chop them chuck them in a jar with a couple of dessert spoons of sugar top up with warm water , its much the same as jam making everything needs to be clean and the same temperature , im using the huge jam pan i picked up at the jumble the other week, it says 20 to 25 minutes so i give them 30 minutes boiling just to be on the safe side . For the weekend im planning an apple sauce fest , that wont be just 4 jars ...lol 

I went to my favourite obscure jumble sale on Saturday , just bought a cook book but i did get a couple of bits in the auction , another metal photographers case for himself to store power tools in. But i did by myself another chore , they sold it as an old tool box but it really isnt, its a Victorian service box , i remember my gran still had hers it was a wooden suitcase that you kept your personal bits and bobs in if your family wernt rich enough to afford luggage  , you usually had that and a carpet bag , its had a hard life the handles and metalwork have been changed several times but its already having a makeover , its been treated for woodworm , i think they were long dead but you cant be to careful , now its awaiting wood filler and rooting out the correct handles and waxing it all , It might become dolls clothes storage i accidently bought a small mountain in an auction last month it was an extra box that somebody didnt want when i picked up a dolls house cheaply , Free is always good 

On the dehydrator front , citrus fruit are a pain i got a huge bagful for a pound at Grimsby market , because i will use them for the apple sauce , i have found out it takes forever to dry slices,,,lol...live and learn 

Sad

 The demise of Wilkos is the first shop going under that has actually encroached on my world i get all my garden stuff from them as its cheap and good , the shops for the most part always seem to be busy but now we dont go out much i shop online , maybe thats the problem the generation that uses it is aging out of the retail world . I suppose thats whats happening everywhere , its not that people just want to shop online its that its been decided somewhere up the food chain that its what we will all do . Maybe thats why theres so much tagged clothing at the jumble sales?  nobody can access a changing room anymore , so you order more than one size or a different colour , ordering a different size or two the same size doesnt mean it will fit , theres no quality in clothing these days whatever the label . So as the tumbleweeds wander down the UK high streets , painting pretty pictures on the boarded up shops isnt helping matters and i have no solutions to give . 

 Himself hasnt been into a shop for years , hes no concept of the price rises and hes driving me steadly mad with his wants , hes dragging me off to Grimsby on Friday to visit the butchers he doesnt understand that it will be no cheaper and it will be out of our price range still i will go through the motions . Its not a case of being unable to afford food its just that our choices are pretty limited , the garden is helping big time, but its the daft stuff , you cant buy a cheap loaf within 15 miles , its £2 plus for a white Hovis , £5 for a little bottle of olive oil , toilet roll is creeping up week by week and dont even get me on the subject of Lincolnshire Coop for a shareholder owned social enterprise they are taking the piss and you have to remember for a lot of people they are the only shop they have access to . Have you noticed the government has stopped mentioning that they allow £12 a week for food and self care if you are in receipt of benefits, i wonder why ?  

Life and Stuff Like That

 Hello Folksies , whats happening in my non exciting world ?  Lots of gardening with my teen helper who is deeply impressed with my mini chainsaw , he had to climb behind the scrap car dumped in the garden by useful son the day before the lockdown !!  its still here folks but the sycamore was growing into it , so rather than give him another excuse not to move it , i tried to kill a teenager . 

My squash plants that i popped into the garden as i took the new potatoes up have gone mental and taken over the garden , tons of male flowers but all theyve yielded so far is a mini marrow and a single pattypan but ive a feeling they plan to go mental late in the season plus ive spotted a couple of pumpkins and a turks turban that are doubling in size every day . Green beans have yielded a couple of meals but i can see by the number of flowers that i will have a glut soon , not many tomatoes set on this year apart from a couple of mini heirloom ones that are tiny plants but with huge tomatoes and ive lost the label off them so will have to remember to save seed .

In the worls of elder care theyve down dosed mothers anti psychotics and shes awake again and receiving visitors , she has no idea who they are, but she will claim any visitor as a family member of some description . On her care front yet again we had heard nothing for 6 weeks since the kerfuffle over her attacking the manager of the new home that they wanted to move her to because it was the best value for money , Nobody is answering their phones or emails but yesterday my daughter finally got an email from her social worker saying they are leaving her where she is and having nothing more to do with the matter ????? in other words dont call us , we arent calling you . 

Finally got to the car boot this week first time since the monsoon season began , spent a grand token of £3 , two massive glass clip lid storage jars , i had seals to fit them allready, they came with tons of free dust but theyve cleaned up nicely i was given some seed pod trays that now have spring cabbage planted in them , donated by another lady who i bought a small basket from was  a tiny Victorian dolls head the size of my thumb i also purchased a bag of stamps and a book , So a good selection for the money i spent . Im going to try and take some photos later , maybe , if i have time , wish me luck